Data from Google, graffiti on Wikipedia and a phone call with my Dad all suggest that biodiversity is not the best term to use to raise public awareness of a growing threat to our wellbeing.Read the rest of this blog post at Under the Banyan.

Going through the national reports submitted by 9 Arab countries to the CBD in 2009-2010 depicting a comprehensive description of the status and challenges of biodiversity conservation, an analyst can conclude that all countries are off track in their efforts to achieve the biodiversity 2010 targets.

The unique and highly vulnerable biodiversity of the Arab Region is at serious risk from increased human activities. The main environmental issues of concern over biodiversity in the… Continue

Throughout the Sahel, recurrent drought since the late 1960’s is turning once crop covered land into desert. And the sand is spreading. Picked up by wind, dunes created by soil particles from the West African coastline and the Sahel are covering villages, roads, crops, and… Continue

This press release was just issued by the secretariat of the UN Convention on Biological Diversity today (21 Sept)

One step further towards the adoption of the Aichi Nagoya Protocol on Access and Benefit Sharing

Montreal, 21 September 2010 – Working late into the night, Governments continued to negotiate the core issues for an international protocol on the provision and use of the genetic resources of the planet. The drafting committee… Continue

UN General Assembly Event to Spur Action to Stem Further Biodiversity LossWith the continued loss of biodiversity representing a major obstacle for achieving the Millennium Development Goals, the UN General Assembly will consider strategies for speeding up the implementation of measures to protect and conserve species and ecosystems around the world.

Governments are on the brink of agreeing new international rules on the use and provision of genetic resources that will play an important role in both conserving biological resources and ensuring that they contribute to human wellbeing.

The new legally binding ‘protocol’ is intended to not only
make it easier for people to use biological resources for commercial, scientific conservation purposes, but also to ensure that any benefits that arise are shared fairly with the… Continue

This Saturday governments are meeting in Montreal for the final negotiations of an international protocol on access to genetic resources and benefit-sharing (18-21 September). The protocol is due to be adopted at Nagoya in October. But significant areas of disagreement remain, and unless these are resolved, the protocol will make little difference.

Kyoto Journal, a Kyoto-based quarterly magazine, will publish a special issue on biodiversity and Japan's Satoyama Initiative that will be discussed at COP10. You can learn more about the issue at http://cop10.org/

Montreal 15 September 2010. Next month, governments from around the world will gather in Nagoya, Japan to make three key decisions that will determine whether current and future generations continue to benefit from nature’s riches.

On the table is a comprehensive ten-year strategy that – if enacted – would revolutionise the way we manage and interact with the world about us, and… Continue